Cat6 RJ-45 Toolless Keystone - Black

This product is intended for use with 23~24 AWG Solid Ethernet cable. It will not work well with stranded Ethernet cable. If you're using stranded Ethernet cable, please use a punch-down style keystone jack.

Note that the width of the RJ45 keystones is such that two cannot be used side-by-side in the same wall-plate.

Comes with lever for ease of installation and retaining clip for secure connection.

*Monoprice continually strives to improve its product line to bring our customers the best products available. Therefore, improvements and physical design changes may be made to listed specifications without prior notice. Item received may not match photo or specs shown.

*The color indicated can vary in tone and/or hue between production runs and manufacturing facilities. The color of this item may not be an exact match to any other product, even if they are indicated as being the same color, whether sold by Monoprice or any other vendor. Individual pieces may also vary very slightly in color from each other.

Reviews

I had a very hard time with these. It is difficult to maneuver all eight wires into position before closing the cap. The double cap tool-less types are better but I now think that punch down ones are the easiest and most reliable. Also, one of mine appears to have been defective.

Common sense would indicate that the tool-less keystone jack would be an easier/consumer-grade version of the more complicated/pro-grade normal jack. This is completely inaccurate. The tool-less jack is nearly impossible to use. All 8 wires must be in exactly the right place before trying to clamp down the two sides of this beast. If you can get this thing closed, and it works after you test it, you should retire immediately and spend the rest of your days contemplating your great accomplishment.

The normal version of this product, the one that requires the punch-down tool, is so much easier to use and infinitely more user-friendly. Grab the punch down tool and the normal keystone jacks from monoprice, and you will be a lot happier.

PROS: Can easily be returned to monoprice for the normal keystone jacks.

CONS: Nearly impossible to use without tiny hands, a magnifying glass, and the patience of a special-needs therapist.

While the jacks are up to Cat6 specification, I found them to be insanely difficult to use with Monoprices own 23AWG Cat6 cable. I ended up having to use a pair of needle-nose to pull the wires into the jacks notches so that the blades would engage.

The price is right for a quality item. Local purchase would be much more expensive.

PROS: This toothless keystone snapped in without any problem. Just make sure your colors are in the right slot. Very pleased. If the wires are seated fully, snapping the Keystone shut is not a problem with the enclosed tool.

A cheap punchdown tool would cost as much as a dozen of these jacks, so for me - putting in only a couple wall plates and one surface box in my house, they were more economical and easier to use.. I've used other toolless Cat5e/Cat6 jacks in the past and they were a hassle. These snap together positively. They fit fine in my wall plates and surface boxes. I'm seeing gigabit speeds between my PC, router, and modem through these jacks, so no complaints.

It was easy to install ant the only hard part is to fit the wires into the slots. There are 2slots one in the middle and the outside slot which you have to insert each individual wires before punching it in.

I chose these tooless jacks because I did not want to spend the money on a tool, I won't be doing wiring projects on a regular basis. So for the money, they were worth it.

But due to the blades not cutting into the insulation I had a 50% failure rate. Fortunately by opening the jack back up and taking a razor blade, I was able to scrape away the insulation, allowing for a complete connection when I closed the jack again.

PROS: Wiring diagrams are printed on the jack. Pretty easy to figure out how to wire it.

CONS: No instructions. Unless the jack is taken apart on the hinge, very difficult to work the wires into position. The blades did not adequately cut through the insulation. I had a 50% failure rate.

When I was ordering components for my CAT6 connections, I was specifically looking for ones that would work with stranded-wire cable because that is what I already had. The toolless keystone jacks had no mention of cable type and I assumed they would work with stranded CAT6. Maybe I should have realized that no connector with split spades would ever be able to accommodate stranded wire but I did not think of that. I spent all day trying to get 4 connections to work before I gave up. Monoprice was terrific in their response as they issued a full refund. I have now ordered inline couplers as they seem to be the only option. Regardless of the wrong type of cable, using those keystone jacks is very difficult. The cable is routed through the bottom half but it is the top half that contains the connecting spades, which, combined with the tight angle that the two swing around, makes it very difficult to work with it, and especially - doing any troublshooting. I have not tried the alternative keystone jacks but I'd suggest trying something else first.

I have never used this type of Keystone and thought I'd give it a whirl, more trouble than it's worth. I now have to return 9 keystones because they won't fit in Monoprice's 12 port wall plate (I had a few blanks). Going to pursue swapping these out for punch down type.

PROS: Passes Data through, will take time to redo some connections

CONS: THEY DO NOT FIT SIDE BY SIDE IN A WALL PLATE!!!!!! And what's worse, Monoprice's Knowledge base states this....

Question: Will your keystones fit wallplates and jack panels from other manufacturers? Answer: Our Keystones are a standard size and configuration so they should fit plates and panels from any manufacturer designed with standard keystone sized holes.

I have never assembled any other jacks that were 1/10th this difficult to assemble. I bought a large collection of these to use as part of remodeling my basement. There are no instructions, so you have to guess at how they're designed to be used. After a few failed attempts, I figured out that the cable needs to go through the U shaped hole at the top, then get pressed into the slots on the top of the jack by color. Of course, there is almost no space between the U shaped hole and the first slot that needs one of the wires, making it almost impossible to get the wires lined up. Also, the wires have to be bent at a sharp 90 degree angle at exactly the right length to line up with any of the slots. Once you get everything in place, you then have to use the included lever, with a substantial amount of force, to clamp the jack together. Finally you have to add a zip tie around the cable to keep it from moving (included). Once you get it put together, and snip off the excess cable, it doesn't fit in the patch panel, unless you leave every other spot empty. Even after having terminated at least 10 of these jacks, it still takes me 3x as long as using a punch down jack. I certainly won't buy these again, and would suggest that you stick with the punchdown style again, unless you're looking for a great way to waste hours and torture yourself.

I half to use needle nose pliers to push the cable in place just to hold it to push the connector down. After that it's a hit or miss if it connects. I'm using solid wire cat6 and this is the most time consuming tooless keystone jack I've ever used. 85% of the time it's good the other 15% not so much. right now iv'e hooked one up and it failed on pin 2 and 8. Tested it with a punch down keystone all 8 lines light up. Hooked another one of these up now pin 4 7 and 8 fail. Iv'e spent twice as much time on these as other ones and sometimes they fail.

As others have said, do yourself a favor and just get the standard ones and then either get a normal punch down tool or a cheap plastic punchdown tool. These were a nightmare to try and install. Thankfully I only got two, scrapped them and ordered the normal punch downs.

PROS: Look nice out of the box

CONS: A royal pain to install, absolutely ZERO thought put into the design, they just don't work well.